IACA – International Association of Commercial Administrators



Topic: Requests to remove corporate information

Question by: Martin Pinard

Jurisdiction: Corporations Canada

Date: June 1, 2016

|Jurisdiction |Question(s) |

| |Corporations Canada displays corporate information (for example, director names, head office address) on its website which is available to the public. We sometimes |

| |receive requests to remove certain corporate information (for ex., director address) from our website. For those of you who make corporate information publically |

| |accessible on a website, we would appreciate your responses to the following questions: |

| | |

| |1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website? |

| |a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website? |

| |i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances? |

| |ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website? |

| |1. If yes, can it be sent to us? |

| |2. Is the policy or procedure publically available on your website? |

|Manitoba | |

|Corporations Canada | |

|Alabama | |

|Alaska | |

|Arizona |In Arizona, we have received requests to remove information – usually addresses. This typically arises because a person lists their residence address for one of the |

| |required addresses. We tell them that all information submitted to us is public record, and must be make publically available on the internet (we have a statute that |

| |says that). If it is information required by law to be on the document, then it is public record and we cannot remove the information. We advise them that it will stay |

| |on the document forever, but they can file a change document and the part viewable on the internet will be changed. |

| | |

| |All of our forms state that information provided is public, and we also tell customers this on our website. |

| | |

| |I’ve had people claim to be in law enforcement tell me that it is dangerous for them to have their residence available to the public, and I tell them if they get a court |

| |order requiring it to be redacted, we would honor that court order. To date, I’ve never received such a court orde |

|Arkansas | |

|California | |

|Colorado | |

|Connecticut | See additional comments below |

|Delaware | |

|District of Columbia | |

| |1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website? |

| | |

| |Yes but since all of corporate information is public we can not remove information that is part of the public record. |

| | |

| |a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website? |

| |i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances? |

| | |

| |We suggest customers to amend information that they do not wish to be displayed on our website. For example, instead of listing home address for registered agent we |

| |suggest for customer to retain commercial agent. |

| | |

| |ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website? |

| | |

| |No specific policy exist since all information is public. As Washington state we advise our customers about all corporate filings being a public record. |

|Florida |1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website? |

| |a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website? Yes. |

| |i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances? Home addresses of individuals that their address is exempt from public record. i.e. law enforcement, |

| |judges, etc. |

| |ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website? Yes, Chapter 119, Florida Statutes. |

| |1. If yes, can it be sent to us? Here is the link : |

|Georgia | |

|Hawaii |Hawaii is similar to Maryland and Georgia. |

| |We don't post officer or director addresses. We just post principal office and resident agent addresses. |

|Idaho | |

|Illinois | |

|Indiana | |

|Iowa | |

|Kansas |We will not remove anything that is statutorily required. If they have entered information that was not required, we will redact and rescan. We do not have a formal |

| |policy. |

|Kentucky | |

|Louisiana |Louisiana is same as or similar to Washington. |

|Maine | |

|Maryland |Maryland is the same as Georgia. We don't post officer or director addresses (unless they're embedded in a posted document). We just post principal office and resident |

| |agent addresses. |

|Massachusetts | |

|Michigan | |

|Minnesota | |

|Mississippi | |

|Missouri | |

|Montana | |

|Nebraska | |

|Nevada |All the information entered into our system for entities is public record and is available through our Free Business Entity Search or Bulk Data Download Service. We have |

| |had requests to remove information from our website, for any number of reasons; however, we will only remove information by court order and that is extremely rare. There|

| |is no set policy. Only that we will make note in the file that certain information will not be displayed or has been removed from record by court order. |

|New Hampshire | |

|New Jersey | |

|New Mexico | |

|New York | |

|North Carolina |North Carolina only removes information which is protected under the |

| |2005 Anti-Theft Protection Act. We advise not to use residential addresses unless it is the only address they have to use. The information is redacted electronically |

| |and an unredacted copy is kept electronically as well. |

|North Dakota | |

|Ohio | |

|Oklahoma | |

|Oregon | |

|Pennsylvania | |

|Rhode Island |1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website? YES |

| |a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website? NO. All filings recorded with this office are public record. |

| |i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances? |

| |ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website? No specific policy. We would require a court order in order |

| |to redact or remove a record. |

|South Carolina | |

|South Dakota | |

|Tennessee | |

|Texas | |

|Utah | |

|Vermont | |

|Virginia | |

|Washington |1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website? Yes, frequently |

| |a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website? Yes, we can remove search data from the website, but the information is still available in a copy or |

| |records request. |

| |i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances? Typically a governor/governing person name or address. We never remove the entity name or registered |

| |agent from the web search. If the concerned customer is also the agent, we suggest they find another to designate. |

| |ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website? No, just based on customer request, it gives us an |

| |opportunity to remind the customer of what a public record is (unfortunately they do not read the instructions that state all documents are public record). We also offer |

| |the customer an opportunity to amend the annual report to use a different address or replace the name of the concerned. |

|West Virginia | |

|Wisconsin | |

|Wyoming | |

Additional comments:

CONNECTICUT:

1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website? YES.

a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website? NO. COMPANY INFORMATION IS PUBLIC RECORD, SO ONCE IT IS PROVIDED ON A FILING, IT IS FAIR GAME FOR ELECTRONIC ACCESS BY THE PUBLIC. NOTE, HOWEVER, THE PERSONAL SECURITY EXCEPTION IN OUR STATUTES, NOTED BELOW.

i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances? N/A – ONCE PROVIDED, IT IS PUBLIC.

ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website? OUR ENTITY STATUTES PROVIDE AN EXCEPTION THAT ALLOWS PRINCIPALS (NOT AGENTS) TO SEEK NONDISCLOSURE OF THEIR PERSONAL RESIDENCE ADDRESS FOR GOOD CAUSE SHOWN. “GOOD CAUSE” SHALL INCLUDE, BUT NOT BE LIMITED TO, A SHOWING THAT PUBLIC DISCLOSURE OF THE PRINCIPAL’S RESIDENCE ADDRESS MAY EXPOSE THE PERSONAL SECURITY OF SUCH PRINCIPAL TO SIGNIFICANT RISK. SEE, FOR EXAMPLE, CGS 34-120 (LLC FORMATION), AT

1. If yes, can it be sent to us? SEE ABOVE LINK.

2. Is the policy or procedure publically available on your website? NOT PER SE. THE CUSTOMER NEEDS TO KNOW THAT THE PROVISION EXISTS, BUT IF THEY SUBMIT A LETTER WITH ALMOST ANY REASON ASSERTED AS GOOD CAUSE, WE ALMOST ALWAYS ACCEPT IT (APPLYING A LIBERAL STANDARD TO HONOR THE “INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO” LANGUAGE OF THE STATUTES).

Full text of email:

Good morning,

Corporations Canada displays corporate information (for example, director names, head office address) on its website which is available to the public. We sometimes receive requests to remove certain corporate information (for ex., director address) from our website. For those of you who make corporate information publically accessible on a website, we would appreciate your responses to the following questions:

1- Have you received requests to remove corporate information from your website?

a. If yes, have you removed corporate information from your website?

i. If yes, what type of information and under what circumstances?

ii. Do you have a specific policy or a procedure for the removal of corporate information from your website?

1. If yes, can it be sent to us?

2. Is the policy or procedure publically available on your website?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

Martin Pinard

Senior Project Officer, Corporations Canada

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada / Government of Canada

New Martin.Pinard@canada.ca / Tel: 343-291-3311 / TTY: 1-866-694-8389 / toll-free in Canada 1-866-333-5556

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